EXPERT PROFILE

Meet the experts who consult on our films and see what they have posted on the site.

Fred L. Borch III

U.S. Army (Ret.) Historian

Colonel Fred L. Borch (Ret.) is the Regimental Historian and Archivist for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps - one of only two full-time legal historians in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Fred served 25 years as a military lawyer in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. His areas of expertise were legal issues involving terrorism, anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism, and Homeland Security. Borch served as the first Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Military Commission Chief Prosecutor (2003 to 2004). In that position, Fred was responsible for directing the overall prosecution efforts of the United States in military commissions involving alleged terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Fred is the author of a number of books and articles on legal and non-legal topics and is considered one of the foremost experts on the legal proceedings during the Lincoln assassination trial. He lectured in 2009 at Gettysburg College Civil War Institute regarding the Lincoln assassination trial procedure.

Discussions by this Expert

Joseph Holt, a Kentucky lawyer and staunch Unionist, was confirmed by the Congress as President Lincoln's Judge Advocate General on September 3, 1862. This made Holt the top lawyer in the Army, and the principal legal advisor to Lincoln on all military legal matters.

Leeladek is correct -- there are few historical films about American women -- mostly because until the 1960s and 1970s, women were "written out" of history -- that is changing now. A great topic... More

Another great story film about an American woman would be the amazing Virginia Hall, who voluntarily worked with the Office of Strategic Services in German-occupied France from March to September... More